1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-textured ready-to-eat cereal flake, more particularly to a multi-textured ready-to-eat cereal flake having a plurality of rice pellets embedded therein and a method of making the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Multi-textured ready-to-eat cereal flakes are known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,130 to Holtz et al. discloses a process for combining two streams of extruded products for forming a multi-textured ready-to-eat cereal flake. To begin, a cooked cereal dough product is formed. Next, an edible matter, such as oat, wheat, barley and corn, is introduced into the cooked cereal dough to form a secondary cereal dough product having the edible matter embedded therein. The secondary cereal dough is then converted into flakes, which are toasted to form the multi-textured ready-to-eat cereal product.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 7,413,760 to Green et al. discloses a multi-textured ready-to-eat cereal flake comprising a cooked cereal grain and a parboiled medium grain rice. Preparing parboiled rice requires long cooking times and additional processing steps thus resulting in additional manufacturing cost and time. Further, the parboiled rice requires a whole grain to be added to the parboiled rice to minimize the viscosity of the parboiled rice and whole grain mixture so as to help maintain the piece identity of the parboiled rice.